The Federal Reserve as Lender of Last Resort During the Subprime Crisis – Successful Stabilisation Without Structural Changes

Hansjörg HERR, Sina RÜDIGER, Jennifer Pédussel WU

Abstract


Abstract. This paper studies the actions of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) during the financial crisis from 2007-2012 rating the performance of the Federal Reserve during the crisis. The chosen scoring model approach shows that the average performance of five specific measures taken by the FRB only ranks between fair and good. Comparing Stiglitz (2010) viewpoints with those of the FRB, this paper analyses several policies and events and argues that the resulting decisions were well intentioned but that the outcome was different from expectations because of missing regulations and restrictions. Furthermore, the structure of the FRB is examined and criticized.

Keywords. Asset Bubbles, Federal Reserve Bank, Scoring Model, Financial Crisis, Monetary policy, Regimes of growth.

JEL. E42, E58, G18, E65.


Keywords


Asset bubbles; Federal Reserve Bank; Scoring model, Financial crisis; Monetary policy; Regimes of growth.

Full Text:


References


Barlevy, G. (2007). Economic theory and asset bubbles, Economic Perspectives, 31(3), 44-59.

Becker, J., Stolberg, S.G., & Labaton, S. (2008). The New York Times. (last accessed 5 July 2012).

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. (2009). Testimony of Chairman Ben S. Bernanke. (last accessed 25 June 2012).

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. (2011a). Credit and Liquidity Programs and the Balance Sheet. (last accessed 8 July 2012).

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. (2011b). Federal Reserve Bank Presidents. (last accessed 14 July 2012).

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. (2011c). Credit and Liquidity Programs and the Balance Sheet - support for specific institutions. (last accessed 14 July 2012).

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. (2012). Credit and Liquidity Programs and the Balance Sheet. (last accessed 26 June 2012).

Board of Governors' Publications Committee. (2005). The Federal Reserve System - Purposes & Functions, Washington, D.C.: System Publication.

Borio, C. & Lowe, P. (2002). Assessing the risk of banking crises, BIS Quarterly Review, December, 43-54.

Davidson, A. & Blumberg, A. (2008). This American Life. (last accessed 15 January 2012).

Dellas, H. & Tavlas, G.S. (2011). The Revived Bretton Woods System, Liquidity Creation, and Asset Price Bubbles, Cato Journal, 31(3), 485-495.

Detzer, D. & Herr, H. (2015). Theories of Financial Crises as Cumulative Processes – an Overview, in: Hein, E., Detzer, D. & Dodig, N. (eds.) 2015, The Demise of Finance-dominated Capitalism: Explaining the Financial and Economic Crises, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Dodig, N. & Herr, H. (2015). Financial Crisis Leading to Stagnation – Selected Historical Case Studies, in: Hein, E., Detzer, D. & Dodig, N. (eds) 2015, The Demise of Finance-dominated Capitalism: Explaining the Financial and Economic Crises, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Dullien, S., Herr, H. & Kellermann, C. (2011). Decent Capitalism: A Blueprint for Reforming Our Economies, London: Pluto Press.

Duttweiler, R. (2009). Managing Liquidity in Banks: A Top Down Approach, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Eisenbeis, R.A. (2010). The Financial Crisis: Miss-Diagnosis and Reactionary Responses, Atlanta: International Atlantic Economic Society.

Ewing, J. (2010). Dealbook, The New York Times. (last accessed 10 July 2012).

Federal Reserve Bank Governance. (2012). Appendix I: Federal Reserve Emergency Programs and Reserve Bank Involvement, U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (2009). Term Securities Lending Facility: Program Terms and Conditions. (last accessed 2 July 2012).

Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (2012). Maiden Lane Transactions. (last accessed 1 July 2012).

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. (2004). U.S. Monetary Policy: An Introduction, San Francisco: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. (2009a). FRBSF Economic Letter. (last accessed 5 July 2012).

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. (2009b). Predicting Crises, Part 1: Do Coming Crises Cast their Shadows before? (last accessed 12 July 2012).

Federal Reserve Bank, (n.d.). Federal Reserve Act. (last accessed 16 July 2012).

Greenspan, A. 2002. Economic Volatility - Remarks by Chairman Alan Greenspan at a symposium sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, (last accessed 10 December 2013).

Guttmann, R. (2009). Asset bubbles, debt deflation, and global imbalances, International Journal of Political Economy, 38(2), 46-69. doi. 10.2753/IJP0891-1916380202

Harris, E.S. (2008). Ben Bernanke's Fed - the Federal Reserve after Greenspan, Boston: Harvard Business Press.

Hein, E., Detzer, D., & Dodig, N. (eds.) (2015). The Demise of Finance-dominated Capitalism: Explaining the Financial and Economic Crises, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Hellwig, M. (2008). Systemic Risk in the Financial Sector: An Analysis of the Subprime-Mortgage Financial Crisis, Max-Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn.

Herr, H. (2014). The European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve as Lender of Last Resort, Panoeconomicus, 61(1S), 59-78. doi. 10.2298/PAN1401059H

Herr, H. & Kazandziska, M. (2011). Macroeconomic Policy Regimes in Western Industrial Countries, Abingdon: Routledge.

Jacobs, B.I. (2009). Tumbling Tower of Babel: Subprime Securitization and the Credit Crisis, Financial Analyst Journal, 65(2), 1-14. doi. 10.2469/faj.v65.n2.5

Kattel, R., Kregel, J., & Tonveronachi, M. (2015). Financial Regulation in the European Union, Abingdon: Routledge.

Kindleberger, C.P. (1978). Manias, Panics, and Crashes - a history of financial crises, New York: Basic Books.

Laeven, L., & Valencia, F. (2008). Systemic Banking Crises: A New Database, International Monetary Fund Working Paper, No. 08/224.

Mankiw, G., & Ball, L. (2010). Macroeconomics and the Financial System, New York: Worth Publishers.

Milgrom, P., & Stokey, N. (1982). Information, trade and common knowledge, Journal of Economic Theory, 26(2), 17-27. doi. 10.1016/0022-0531(82)90046-1

Minsky, H.P. (1992). The Financial Instability Hypothesis, The Jerome Levy Economics Institute of Bard College Working Paper, No. 74.

Minsky, H.P. (1975). John Maynard Keynes, New York: McGraw-Hill.

Norman, J.H. & Thiagarajan, R. (2009). Asset bubbles and market crises, Journal of Investing, 18(4), 6-22. doi. 10.3905/JOI.2009.18.4.006

Peláez, R.F. (2012). The housing bubble in real-time: the end of innocence, Journal of Economics and Finance, 36(1), 211-225. doi. 10.1007/s12197-010-9165-4

Pollard, P.S. (2003). A look inside two central banks: The European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, 85(2), 11-30.

Rüdiger, S. (2013). The subprime crisis and the Federal Reserve – Path and choices after 2007, IPE Working Paper, No.25.

Sagemann, B., & Reese, P. (2011). The Great Subprime Credit Crisis and is Impact on Eastern Europe. In: Financial Crisis in Eastern Europe, Wiesbaden: Gabler Verlag, 21-62.

Shiller, R.J. (2005). Irrational Exuberance, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Shiller, R.J. (2008). The Subprime Solution - How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

Siegel, J.J. (2003). What is an Asset Price Bubble? An Operational Definition, European Financial Management, 9(1), 11-24. doi. 10.1111/1468-036X.00206

Standard and Poor's. (2009). Standard and Poor's. (last accessed 23 June 2012).

Standard and Poor's. (2011). Standard and Poor’s. (last accessed 23 June 2012).

Standard and Poor's. (2012). Standard and Poor's. (last accessed 23 June 2012).

Stiglitz, J.E. (2010). Freefall - America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy, New York: W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.

Sullivan, R. (2009). Taming Global Village Risk II: Understanding and Mitigating Bubbles, The Journal of Portfolio Management, 35(4), 131-141. doi. 10.3905/JPM.2009.35.4.131

Summers, P.M. (2005). What Caused The Great Moderation? Some Cross-Country Evidence, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Review, 3, 5-32.

Tirole, J. (1987). Intertemporal efficiency, intergenerational transfers and asset pricing: An introduction, in: Essays in Honor of Edmond Malivaud, vol. 1: Microeconomics, Cambridge: MIT Press, 116-142.

U.S.Code, 1., § 225A. Maintenance of long run growth of monetary and credit aggregates. (last accessed 16 February 2012).

United States Government Accountability Office. (2011). Federal Reserve System - Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Policies and Processes for Managing Emergency Assistance, Washington, D.C.: US GAO.

Waller, C.J. (2011). Independence + Accountability: Why the Fed is a Well-Designed Central Bank, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Review, 93(5), 293-301.

Wessel, D. (2009). In Fed We Trust - Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic, New York: Crown Business.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1453/jepe.v3i2.776

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.




.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Journal of Economics and Political Economy - J. Econ. Pol. Econ. - JEPE - www.kspjournals.org

ISSN: 2148-8347

Editor: jepe@ksplibrary.org   Secretarial: secretarial@ksplibrary.org   Istanbul - Turkey.

Copyright © KSP Library